Rig Rundown: C.W. Stoneking

Aussie blues guitarist C.W. Stoneking met with PG’s John Bohlinger between gigs to play some guitar and talk about his minimal approach to gear while tracking and touring.

Shortly before this interview, C.W. made the costly mistake of walking into Gruhn’s Guitars in Nashville. Although he walked out with a considerably lighter wallet, he had in hand this 1957 Grestch 6120. I’m sure the sight of this guitar would have made Chet Atkins’ fingers twitch uncontrollably. The 6120 came to him stock, but Stoneking replaced the original brass nut with a bone nut to help with tuning stability.

This 1931 National Duolian is completely stock and amazingly clean considering its age.

Stoneking loves vintage, low-watt amps, but has learned the hard way that they disintegrate over time. For something a bit more durable, Stoneking had Li'l Dawg Amplifiers build him a brown Princeton-ish Choco Prince amp. Stoneking’s tech, Jereme Clingan of Melbourne, built the amp’s cabinet and installed the variable voltage power transformer and switch, ideal for a musician touring the world. The amp drives a 10” Celestion Gold G10 alnico speaker.

Stoneking runs a curly cable into his Boss TU-2 tuner. From there, it hits a Tim Overdrive made by Paul Cochrane and a Super Electric Buzztone fuzz, built by Jimmy Behan in Ireland. Last in line sits a Way Huge Aqua-Puss Analog Delay. All the pedals are powered by the Cioks DC8.

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John Bohlinger is a Nashville-based multi-instrumentalist best known for leading the band on NBC's Nashville Star, serving as music director for the CMT Awards and specials on PBS and GAC, and of course for his appearances in PG Rig Rundown, Review Demo, Axes & Artifacts, and What Bohlinger Plays videos.

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